Why The Synod On The Family Is So Vital!

Have you ever sat back and wondered why it is that we exist in families? I mean, why is it that society is built on a family structure? How come when family breaks down, the culture breaks down?

The reason is that God is family.

St. John Paul II declared that “God in deepest mystery is not a solitude, but a family because he was within himself Fatherhood, Sonship, and the essence of the family, which is love.”

Society exists in families because family is our destiny. Our created end, provided we accept it, is to be true sons and daughters of God. We can actually be “partakers” of his divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)! You could say that the whole spiritual life is all about getting back into the family of God.

Adam got us kicked out. The New Adam, as St. Paul calls Jesus Christ, offers us a way back in.

But the path back into the family isn’t easy. Salvation may be free, but it’s not cheap. In order to get back into the divine family for which we were made, we have to live like the divine family. We have to give of ourselves in covenantal, sacrificial love. That’s what binds the family together. That’s how we become like God.

This is why a synod on the family is so important. The Church can’t afford to allow any misguided notions of what constitutes covenantal, fruitful family life. It can’t afford to allow any degradation of the very institution that is an icon of the Holy Trinity itself.

ABOUT ME

I am an author, speaker, podcaster, Vice President and Executive Producer at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. I’m married to a beautiful woman named Veronica with whom I have six children (so far…she’s 10 years younger so you never know).